Page 20 of House of Deceit

“Well, she is right over there.” She points behind me.

“She?”

“She.”

I turn around and take in the woman that is apparently Charles. Red hair falls over her ample breasts in waves. Her long legs peek out beneath a short skirt. The black heels make them look even longer. When she smiles, laughing, pushing her hair over her shoulder as she answers a question, my lungs stop. My adoration of this beautiful woman sours with dread as I see this season going up in smoke along with my shot at directing.

My nails cut into my palms as I clench my fists. I can feel myself scowling. Unable to go back to my meeting, I watch the woman as she finishes up her interview. She’s effervescent beneath the lights, but I seethe. I hate liars. Lies are what my ex-fiancé fed me for dinner every night.

“I love you.”

Lie.

“He’s just a work friend.”

Lie.

“I would never cheat on you.”

Lie.

Lies stole the dignity and respect I deserved from someone I had intended to spend my life with.

I send a text to Sheila, letting her know we are going to need to have a discussion. This mix-up will change the dynamics of the house. Every other season had an equal number of male and female participants to start with. While this changes after the first week, it will cause an issue with the way the rooms are situated. I shoot off a text to our attorneys that we’ll need their input on the situation as well.

Without looking up from my phone, I ask Alice to please bring the woman to me as I hear her finishing up her interview. Sheila responds, telling me to meet her in twenty minutes and not to be late. I tap out a response, making a mental list of the other contestant applications I had read through, hoping one of my other top contenders is still available.

The woman’s heels make a dull sound as she moves across the carpet. I look up into an alluring pair of sapphire eyes. Her smile is mesmerizing, but it does not lessen my scowl, her lies sticking in my craw. She holds out her hand as she stops in front of me.

“Hi, I’m Charlie Price.” The smoky voice I noticed when I first walked in the room washes over me, but it does nothing to temper my anger. I grab her bicep and start pulling her from the room. “Hey, what the fuck is your problem?”

She struggles to rip her arm from my grip but is unable to do so, garnering the attention of a few of the newer staff, but no one stops us.

“Hey! Stop! Let go of me, you raging dick hole!” She continues hollering as I pull her from the room. I shove her into a small office across from the ballroom, releasing her when the door closes behind us.

I turn around, and I barely have a chance to inhale before her hand is connecting with my cheek. Fire rips through my face as my neck wrenches from one side to the next. I stretch my jaw, feeling where she slapped me. Her nostrils are flaring, and she’s huffing and puffing like a freight train.

“Well, you definitely have a good arm on you,” I tell her.

“You’re lucky I didn’t sucker punch you.”

“Before you hit me again, maybe you’d like to explain why you lied on your application?”

“I didn’t lie on my application, and even if I did, you have absolutely no right to manhandle me.” She crosses her arms under her breasts, pushing them up. It takes everything in me to keep my eyes on hers, but I have a feeling if they stray for even a moment, I’m in for another physical altercation. I grit my teeth.

“I’m sorry about that. Now, let’s discuss how I was expecting a man and you are most definitely”—I eye her up and down—“not.”

“Why would I be a man?” she asks, moving to take a seat and I sit opposite her, pulling up her application on my phone.

“Your name is listed here as Charles Price. Charles tends to be a male name.”

“My name is Charlotte. I go by Charlie and my best friend back home calls me Charles.”

“So, you thought you’d use a name that’s not yours to get around the equal starting numbers of men and women on the show?”

She rolls her eyes, and it lights my temper anew. “I just told you, it is my name. It’s just not my government name.” She crosses her long legs.

“I will be meeting with the executive producer of our show and the attorneys. Don’t get too comfortable.” I give her a sharp smile and stand, moving to leave the room, hoping I can get a new contestant here in time for the start of the show.

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